


DON’T READ ME (SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME) (maybe)

by threnodyjones



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, I will update the tags once the faffing over the Endgame premier has died down some, Meta, Reaction, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 19:58:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18598354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/threnodyjones/pseuds/threnodyjones
Summary: Endgame might finally give me something I’ve been waiting for for a very long time now.





	DON’T READ ME (SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME) (maybe)

DON’T READ ME (ENDGAME SPOILERS POSSIBLE)

I am okay with this. If those Endgame spoilers I’ve been reading are accurate, I’m okay with this. I’ve been okay with this for _years_.

I’ve watched MCU writers, producers, and directors take a beloved character and turn them into a mockery of their decades of comics history. Was I glad certain story lines weren’t followed? Absolutely. But I would have taken those story lines over what was actually given in MCU because at least those _made sense_ narratively speaking.

I watched, what honestly? has been a fantastic phenomenon of pop culture taking its place on the big screen, a series of stories that routinely - and with relish - demonized a character I’ve loved and admired for years. I’ve watched a series of movies take a team that worked with each other and cared for each other and turn them into a bunch of loosely connected work colleagues that apparently often couldn’t stand one another. But from my perspective, there was always the _perfect_ person amongst them to turn into the villain, into the whipping-critter.

I was a part of AK for years and watched the split happen and happen and HAPPEN, until finally the two sides were as divided as the characters in the Civil War edition comics.

And I ended up firmly on my character’s side. I watched a historical phenom turn a great character with so much potential into a hated thing for 50% of the fandom and a joke for 25% that didn’t hate the character on principle. And I finally got to the point that I thought... please, _please_ let this character die. If it will stop the character assassinations, just KILL THEM OFF THIS MOVIE! PLEASE! Which movie? All the movies, since CACW.

Maybe it’ll finally make the character assassination die down. Off? I doubt it. Every movie and series has managed to get in a dig on this character (before they were even born, are you FUCKING KIDDING ME‽ We get your point, writers), and all I’ve wished for for a while is for this character to die.

I loved AK for a long time. My little chaos-loving heart adored that LJ. But in the last, final weeks, the vitriol had become so bad that even I was just deletedeletedelete. I participated. I wrote. I prompted. The fans there? Christ, some were amazing and others of them? Sucked. I legitimately thrive on the chaos, but even _I_ stopped writing mid-story (anon even!) when fucktards declared I was hateful and a misogynist and this and that and other things based on the fact that I didn’t demonize A SECONDARY CHARACTER because of things they determined they’d meant in certain movie scenes.

And that’s when I started thinking.... you know..l maybe I would just be best if my fav character died. And I would actually start to get excited when movie spoilers would say... they DIE! They COULD DIE! Maybe they DIE!

Because maybe then there won’t be X, Y ,and Z to latch on to to make this character the most hated person ever conceived in human literature...

And the didn’t die.

And they didn’t die.

I had to back away from AK because of all the shit. And then it shut down. I actually still miss it, the... vitriol, for any given character, mostly followed a sine wave. But there were honestly some AMAZING prompts that I still have bookmarked. And I still think about.

So AK shut down. And then I got REAL busy with work. But I still thought about those prompts. Gor’bless, I tried following the sequels to AK. Didn’t work.

And I got more busy. And then CACW _really_ got itself going and you know what? Sorry, I read stories on both sides, but there is only one side that I am REALLY seeing the vitriol and jackassery coming from. I don’t know, MAYBE the other side is just SO GOOD at quickly deleting negatone comments or something. But it’s the same fucking side that turned me off of AK and ultimately off of writing for AV.

And I’ve waited several days and had a lot of vodka to get to this point of possibly posting this. But I’m hearing stuff out of China right now on top of the preview leakages that makes me think that.... it’s finally true. This really might happen.

And I’m still okay with it. Am I going to leak some tears when I see the movie? Probably. Do I really think any of the character choices I’m hearing rumors of are against the characters? No, I really don’t. I’ll give MCU credit, they are pretty solid in character growth/choices, however much you might think, _“what the fuck did I just witness?”_.

Here’s the thing... years ago, and I’ll be fucked if I can remember if it was LJ, or Pinterest, or Tumblr, or Tumblr-via-Pinterest, and I know I downloaded it from wherever but I’m vodka#x into giving a fuck about looking it up...

Somebody on the InterWebz said something about the fact that every time one of us writers writes something in this Marvel multi-verse... we are spawning a new universe. It’s canonical. There are SO MANY universes in Marvel canon, that when we write something new? I could VERY LIKELY be creating canon for a new universe.

So my Leverage fusion that I really seriously want to get on paper but never started because of the asshats of fandom and then my lack of RL time? REAL.

The one where Tony adopts bb!Bruce? REAL.

That Winterfell dimensional shit I’m still trying to fully plot out bc history major and accuracy, yo! REAL.

Our fandom is so fucking imaginative and prolific, no matter your character of choice. We have a wealth and breadth of canon to explore and mutate and spindle and mutilate.

I am just... I’m going to be very happy/sad if the most... fandom-getting media format of my fandom finally kills off my character. Because I really do consider the directions taken for them to be character assassination.

And what’s really sad is that... this could actually be ambiguous for some fans. Because it’s definitely _not_ just the character I’m thinking of that has had this occur. There is one character in Endgame that, if the spoilers are true, has definitely been done a disservice. And for their fans I feel sorrow. Because that shit is against everything I know of the character’s character. I frankly have never liked that character, but even I think it’s utterly against their nature (even as I was trying to find reasons for it being possible).

I just... you know what... it might take me (another) 20 fucking years to do it, it I’m going to write my Leverage fusion. And my Batman crossover. And my bb!Bruce story. Because they deserve to be universes that exist. I love the characters I don’t even love. Because they give depth and breadth to a universe I’m just playing in.

And I’m going to miss Stan Lee. No, he wasn’t perfect. He was human. But you can’t deny the effect his creativity and life had on modern culture. It’s already started for some authors, but honestly? I think as a fandom we should all start showing the Stan cameos in our Marvel universes. I think it would be a fitting homage to the legacy he created.


End file.
